by Jeremy Banas
Basement of the Koehler House, 1950s. San Antonio College and the Alamo Colleges District Foundation.
Reading room at the Koehler House. San Antonio College and the Alamo Colleges District Foundation.
Stairs at the Koehler House. San Antonio College and the Alamo Colleges District Foundation.
The mansion features a sprawling 12,665 square feet, with three main floors plus a basement, and takes up an entire city block. Koehler adorned the mansion with the latest stylings, as well as a few personal luxuries. Koehler had a one-lane pin setting bowling alley installed in the basement designed by Brunswick, and the alley also featured several murals rumored to have been painted by Koehler himself. “I remember running around the house and into the basement,” said Dr. Paul Pace, a Koehler descendant. “We used to play a lot on the bowling alley.” Dr. Pace also reminisced about holidays at the mansion, running around under the table during Thanksgiving in particular.
Koehler’s bedroom was on the second floor, which now houses the grant offices of the San Antonio Community College. The third floor featured a large ballroom that was once used as a speakeasy in the 1940s and a rather large mirror that allegedly has a secret of its own. The ballroom “features a hidden bar that could be brought out during parties and when the lights to the mirror are turned on a hidden semi-nude picture of an unknown woman becomes visible,” noted Dr. Pace, whose mother, Margaret Pace Willson, was the great-niece of Otto and Emma Koehler.
Despite the fairly eclectic nature of the mansion, it was, in fact, a home for the Koehlers. Even after Otto’s death in 1914, Emma Koehler continued to live in the house until her death in 1943. Emma would host any number of gatherings at her home, including Easter egg hunts and afternoon coffee. “Every Sunday at 4:00 in the afternoon, she received family and friends in the conservatory for afternoons of cake and coffee. She loved to hear all the gossip, and, even as a little girl, I supplied her with all the latest news,” wrote Margaret Pace Willson in her memoirs regarding her Aunt Emma. Margaret Pace Willson was the wife of Pace Foods founder Dave Pace and mother to local hand surgeon Dr. Paul Pace and his sister, Linda Pace. Linda would later marry Kit Goldsbury, the current owner of the Pearl.
Pace Willson spent much of her time at the Koehler mansion, enjoying what was essentially a private playground. “I never realized that Aunt Emma’s house was grand or large until much later, when my high school friends made comments about how impressive it was. To me it was just an ordinary old house!” said Pace Williams, who also fondly remembered those Easter egg hunts. “My cousins and I delighted in hunting Easter eggs on the grounds. Besides the hard-boiled variety, we also had sugar eggs with lovely scenes inside and chocolate eggs from Germany.”
Easter wasn’t the only holiday that was done up in high style at the Koehler mansion. Christmas was quite an affair. “Aunt Emma always had a formal dinner on Christmas Eve that included several dozen family members and friends. Everyone set up a small table with their gifts and decorations to distribute to the family in the parlor. It was the job of one of the servants to decorate the large tree so that it would be a surprise for all the guests. At the appointed time everyone entered to see the ceiling-high tree with its glowing light from real candles,” noted Pace Willson.
While he was still alive, Otto Koehler was a stickler for formality regarding maintenance of the grounds. He took great pride in the landscaping of the grounds and his home, which included broad terraced lawns. When the home was first built, local landscaper G.A. Schattenburg of Boerne, Texas, was hired for the job. Local lore even indicates that Otto Koehler never left for too long without leaving special instructions to the staff gardener as to the care of his plants, flowers and trees.
Margaret Bosshardt tossing her bouquet on the main stairway in her Aunt Emma Koehler’s home, where her wedding reception was held after marrying David Pace, 1941. Just outside the picture were Otto A. Koehler and Emma Koehler. San Antonio College and the Alamo Colleges District Foundation.
Zebra Room print. San Antonio College and the Alamo Colleges District Foundation.
Emma Koehler (second from right) playing cards. San Antonio College and the Alamo Colleges District Foundation.
Koehler House dining room, 2017. Jeremy Banas.
A work rumored to have been painted by the original Otto Koehler. It sits in the basement of the Koehler House. Jeremy Banas.
Koehler House dining room. San Antonio College and the Alamo Colleges District Foundation.
Koehler House patio. San Antonio College and the Alamo Colleges District Foundation.
Reception dinner for Margaret Bosshardt at the Koehler House. San Antonio College and the Alamo Colleges District Foundation.
When Emma Koehler passed away in 1943, her nephew and namesake of her husband, Otto A. Koehler, moved into the mansion with his wife, Marcia. Otto A. would have been thrilled to be moving back into the home in which he had lived the majority of his childhood. Upon Otto A.’s passing in 1969, the Koehler mansion remained with the family, and in 1971, it was deeded to the San Antonio Union Junior College, now the San Antonio College, by Marcia, under a prior arrangement from Otto A. and Emma Koehler.
Once San Antonio College assumed ownership of the mansion, both the Junior College District and the nearby San Antonio Art League operated it. The mansion was used as an art venue until 1988, at which time it was converted into a mixed-use venue known as the Koehler Cultural Center, which it remains to this day. Now run by the Alamo Community College District, of which San Antonio College is a member, the mansion houses some educational offices for the Alamo Colleges, as well as holds events both for the Alamo Colleges and the general public.
Emma Koehler (far left) and family in the solarium. San Antonio College and the Alamo Colleges District Foundation.
Bedroom at the Koehler House. San Antonio College and the Alamo Colleges District Foundation.
Stairs in the foyer of the Koehler House, 2017. Jeremy Banas.
The Koehler House today. Jeremy Banas.
Carriage house at the Koehler House today. Jeremy Banas.
The Alamo Community College District has done a great job of preserving the mansion and grounds while also keeping the integrity of the original appearance. As such, it is also preserved as a state historical landmark and looks to continue as a representation of San Antonio’s bygone years to be enjoyed by Alamo City residents for decades more.
APPENDIX II
THE TEXAS TRANSPORTATION COMPANY
The Texas Transportation Company was owned and operated by the San Antonio Brewing Association/Pearl Brewery from October 9, 1898, until Pearl closed in 2001. It measured a mere two miles in length, making it the shortest railroad track in the United States and the oldest still operating in 2001. In fact, the track and one of the train cars still exist and can be seen at the Pearl complex today. The first two engines were horse-drawn, with the San Antonio Brewing Association later converting them to run with electricity immediately after purchase.
This short track started by the San Antonio Brewing Association was actually the second to bear this name. From 1866 to 1896, another Texas Transportation Company existed with a line running from Clinton, Texas, all the way to Houston. By 1896, this first iteration had been absorbed into the Southern Pacific Railroad. Ironic, considering the role the Southern Pacific would play with the San Antonio Brewing Association’s version. In 1890, the Alamo Electric Street Railway Company arrived and was the city’s first electric railway company.
Although trains had been present in San Antonio since the 1880s, the Texas Transportation Company was the first to operate electric freight cars in San Antonio. Although the track itself ran through San Antonio, the railway existed for the pleasure of the brewery. It ran from a station at the San Antonio Brewing Association, proceeding into the city and ending at the rail yards of the Southern Pacific Railroad. To run through the streets of San Antonio, the Texas Transportation Company paid the City of San Antonio $1,000 for each year
of its use.
Texas Transportation Company freight car. Charlie Staats.
Texas Transportation Company freight car rolling down the tracks with XXX Pearl Beer. Pearl LLC Archives.
A former train car of the Texas Transportation Company sits on the grounds of the New Pearl complex. Jeremy Banas.
The Southern Pacific Railroad oversaw the construction of the new line, with every attempt made to use the best materials available. To this end, extra-heavy copper was used that allowed for very little lag. The train cars were approximately twenty feet long and together would handle the almost 12 million pounds of freight from the San Antonio Brewing Association, which committed to using the Texas Transportation Company exclusively for its freight needs, although the railroad itself was used by other breweries, including the Lone Star Brewing Association.
About 150 poles measuring thirty-five feet each were initially erected for trolleys, or electricity trains, with the trolley wire twenty-five feet off the ground, allowing workers who were on the boxcars to pass without harm. The Daily Light reported in September 1898 that the Alamo Street Car Line, headed by Superintendent W.H. Hume, would provide the one-hundred-horsepower electric motors. With part of the track running through the streets of San Antonio, a portion of the streets, including River Avenue, was torn up for the new track line, making it necessary for the Alamo Street Car Line to bring steam rollers into work on that section. Since most streetcar companies in San Antonio used a more narrow-gauge track, Texas Transportation Company needed them widened for commercial freight use. When Otto Koehler bought the Alamo Heights line, these additional track upgrades were initiated for what would become the Texas Transportation Company. In October 1898, the directors of the Texas Transportation Company—J.J. Stevens, Otto Wahrmund and Judge S.G. Newton—would place an order for bigger two-hundred-horsepower engines that provided more power for the train cars, as those provided by the Alamo Street Car Line did not have the needed power for the railroad’s train cars.
Once the train began operations, the company was able to rest a bit easier. It had been a long road to get the much-needed rail line operational. To start, the Texas Transportation Company had to get around the illegality of operating a freight train inside an incorporated city. Through a little lobbying, the railroad was able to get the general incorporation law amended so as to allow its railcars to operate. As if that had not been difficult enough, the Texas Transportation Company was the target of an injunction that sought to prevent the rail line from even being built. Once heard in court, the railroad came out the victor, and despite a small delay, construction was able to begin.
Later that first month of October 1898, the Texas Transportation Company filed a request with the State of Texas to set the rates under which it would be allowed to operate. Wahrmund, Stevens and Newton made the trek up from the Alamo City to the capitol in Austin and met with the Texas Railroad Commission.
At some point during Prohibition, the Texas Transportation Company grew weary of that $1,000-per-year fee it was paying to the City of San Antonio. B.B. McGimsey, who was by this time general manager of the brewery in its Alamo Foods Company incarnation, was also manager of the Texas Transportation Company. McGimsey, along with other board members, met with then San Antonio mayor C.M. Chambers to have the previously agreed-on franchise tax removed and refunded.
The basis of their argument lay with the fact that since Prohibition went into effect in 1918, the railroad had lost money and was also serving fourteen other companies. The rumor mill at the time reported that about three-fourths of these fourteen other companies held stock in the Texas Transportation Company. McGimsey and company also stated that an initial reason for the tax back in 1897 was that it was the only corporation in Texas that paid such a franchise tax to a city entity, as it was already paying the same regular taxes to the state that was required of all railroads. When all was said and done, their request for a refund was quickly denied.
Pearl transportation line map. Charlie Staats.
Texas Transportation Company railcar no. 2. Charlie Staats.
The decades rolled on, and so did the Texas Transportation Company, continuing to service its parent brewery and other businesses in San Antonio. The Handbook of Texas Online notes, “In the 1990s the railroad had two electric locomotives and remained one of the last freight-hauling electric lines in the United States. The train consisted of an average of twenty-five to thirty cars per day that operated over a six-day week.” The railroad continued through to 2000, when the Pearl Brewing Company, owned by Pabst Brewing, ceased its operations. By 2002, one year after Pabst closed the historic Pearl Brewery, the Texas Transportation Company was officially dissolved, ending the last vestige of the Pearl. Even the railroad’s overhead wires and tracks were decommissioned, although one plan was to use the tracks for a historic trolley service—to this end, the transit authorities of Bexar County and San Antonio had even conducted a study to see if this was feasible.
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———. November 14, 1914.
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